“The publication of many of C. Clifton Black’s essays and sermons is highly welcomed. Their range, their insight, and their elegance repeatedly testify not only to the author’s erudition but also to his eagerness to find the truth and speak it. Black’s contribution to reading the New Testament and grappling with its message in a multiplicity of ways is both profound and timely.”
—C. Kavin Rowe, George Washington Ivey Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Duke Divinity School
“Clift Black’s learned essays and reflections cover a range of topics including interpreting Scripture, the church and its ministry and faith, death and grief, sin, prayer, and much more. But their real subject matter is the Gospel of God—the grace of God manifested in Christ Jesus for the life of the world. Not only does that Gospel reverberate throughout this collection, but it shapes Black’s posture as an interpreter of Scripture for the church and its life and faith—a posture marked by humility, receptivity, and gratitude.”
—Marianne Meye Thompson, Fuller Seminary
“Clift Black’s essays are at turns witty, provocative, surprising, or profound (and sometimes all of these at once), but always intellectually and spiritually stimulating. This volume reveals the mind and heart of a prayerful, Trinitarian scriptural theologian who bears witness to the significance of both history and theology for the practice of exegesis and for the life of the church.”
—Michael J. Gorman, St. Mary’s Seminary & University, Baltimore
“This new collection combines some of the best anglophone New Testament theology of the past forty years with deep reflection on current biblical scholarship in relation to the church’s thinking, preaching, and praying through the study of its scriptures. An engaging style with more than occasional humor makes it accessible well beyond the seminary teachers and clergy who stand to benefit most from these mature fruits of a brilliant and productive career.”
—Robert Morgan, Linacre College, Oxford University
“Clifton Black is a master essayist who follows his own mandate: ‘At every point I must simplify: space is limited; one must cut to the matter’s heart.’ The result is a treasure of over 400 pages to be savored one thoughtful, elegantly written essay at a time. But Black is neither a spectator nor a color commentator. He is a combatant, landing one blow after another in defense of the vital importance of biblical theology—the quest to interpret the core message and themes of the Bible for the church—while calling others to join the fray. Biblical scholars who ignore his call will do so at their own peril! The future of our discipline is at stake.”
—Alan Culpepper, Mercer University
“Clifton Black’s essays demonstrate historical acumen and, above all, theological depth. Central questions of Christian faith are dealt with competently and at the same time in a contemporary manner.”
—Udo Schnelle, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
“As ‘a churchman first, whose scholarship has been practiced in service of the gospel’ (p. x), Black presents here a collection of essays that combines exegetical craftsmanship with theological depth in a refreshingly independent manner.”
—Reinhard Feldmeier, University of Göttingen
“Anyone who wonders about the contemporary meaning or status of ‘biblical theology’ or the very notion of a ‘biblical theologian’ need wonder no more. Here is biblical scholarship in the service of the church from one of its premier practitioners. Clifton Black’s considerable gifts as a scholar, essayist, and churchman are evident on every page. May these treasures, both old and new, stir in others the call to this kind of biblical theology.”
—Joel B. Green, Fuller Theological Seminary
“Clifton Black is a Princeton institution, widely admired for his depth of Christian learning, his charm and style, and his disarming sense of humor. He is one of today’s leading literary and theological scholars of the Gospel of Mark and the history of biblical interpretation—and also, by his own account, ‘a churchman first.’ All these qualities come together in this fine anthology of thirty of his best essays, loosely but significantly organized under the contested heading of ‘biblical theology’—which is shown here to range from scholarly debates about Paul and the Gospels to their astonishingly wide application in homiletical and pastoral ministry.”
—Markus Bockmuehl, University of Oxford
